Utah Republican Party

The Utah Republican Party is the Utah affiliate of the national US Republican Party. The party was founded in 1854, but the national parties were not active in Utah until after statehood was acquired in 1896, with members of the former Mormon People's Party, Liberal Party of Utah, and other Utahan parties joining either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. Utah rapidly gained overwhelming support for the Republican Party, with Senator Reed Smoot creating a powerful alliance of Mormons and non-Mormons in the state. By 2017, the Republican Party controlled a supermajority in the State House of Representatives (63/75 seats) and the State Senate (24/29 seats), as well as all of the statewide offices, having held all of them since 1996.